


Suggested guide for Tagging

by DarkAthena (seraphim_grace)



Category: teen wolf - Fandom
Genre: tag post
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-29
Updated: 2013-09-29
Packaged: 2017-12-27 23:09:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/984744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seraphim_grace/pseuds/DarkAthena
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lately alot of the friction in the Teen Wolf Fandom has been down to fics being mistagged or tagged inappropriately<br/>So over the course of a week I did a survey of what tags we'd like to see</p><p>Now this is meant to be helpful and can only be voluntary<br/>But if doing this can minimise some of the wank going on in the fandom at the moment I'm more than happy to be the scapegoat</p><p>This is a list of SUGGESTED tags, it's also meant to be a resource on what should we tag for, so if you don't know what to tag there's someplace you can check.</p><p>(I've put this under most pairings so it gets visibility)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Suggested guide for Tagging

Lately alot of the friction in the Teen Wolf Fandom has been down to fics being mistagged or tagged inappropriately<br />  
So over the course of a week I did a survey of what tags we'd like to see  
  
Now this is meant to be helpful and can only be voluntary<br />  
But if doing this can minimise some of the wank going on in the fandom at the moment I'm more than happy to be the scapegoat  
  
This is a list of SUGGESTED tags, it's also meant to be a resource on what should we tag for, so if you don't know what to tag there's someplace you can check.

 

 

First Ao3 has archive warnings

 

These are

Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Major Character Death

Rape/Non-Con

Underage

if any of these apply TAG It

 

Now the **Underage** thing has created a massive furore because in California where the show is set the legal age of consent is 18

however the show doesn't seem to care for that. In the vast majority of the world it's 16 which the show seems to follow. This is true of most states in the US as well. So UNLESS your fic deliberately deals with the fact that one or both characters is underage, or those characters are under the age of 16 this tag can be skipped.

This means if Stiles tells Derek they have to wait until he's eighteen, tag it, if it's Lydia and Jackson in the back of the porsche as a PWP as long as it's post S2 don't tag it.

BE WARNED LYDIA IS AN ACTIVE SEXUAL CHARACTER AT 15 IN SEASON 1

 

 **Major Character Death** \- if your fic relies on a massive twist (and only then) where someone dies at the end, then don't tag this, but put character death in the normal tags. Otherwise click the CHOSE NOT TO USE ARCHIVE TAGS

this is your get out of jail free card - it allows you to tell them something bad is coming without saying what and thus preserve your story.

If Death is the main point of the story (and is not a character) warn for it. If a villain dies at the end of the story - it's kind of expected and you don't have to warn for it. But consider this thoroughly and if in doubt ask someone, a beta, a trusted friend, another author, you'd be surprised how helpful people will be.

If THE MAIN CHARACTER IN YOUR STORY DIES, even if they're a side character in canon - like Greenberg- ADD THE MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH TAG! You've given them major character status - so glory in it!

 

 

 **power differential** (ie alpha/beta, teacher/student, commander/soldier, master/slave)

This is any pairing where coercion, whether intended or not is explored. This means if Scott accidentally uses his alpha powers on Isaac, or Derek uses his strength over Lydia or Peter is just Peter with Stiles, if you're writing Harris forcing Stiles to give him head for a grade - this is a power differential.

This might not be intentional on the aggressor's part. This might be Isaac thinking he has to sleep with Scott to stay in his pack - even if it's not true. Err on the side of caution, if in doubt tag it just in case. You can always put in the notes that you're not sure if it applies, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

This should not contain BDSM (as a good BDSM relationship does not have a forced power structure)

 

 

**Alpha/Beta/Omega**

A lot of people just  don't like this, so tag it, it means those who do like it can search by it and those who don't can skip it. **  
**

**Werewolf power structures** \- ie Derek is an Alpha s2 Scott is an Omega but doesn't involve heats etc, this is just to make sure they're not mistagged.

 

**Alternate Universe - HUMAN**

or everything would be the same if there were no werewolves, or no supernatural etc because it's such a huge part of canon

Alternatively we need a quick and easy tag for - Alternate Universe - People who aren't werewolves are now, and  the werewolves aren't. because I've seen a few fics with that

 

**Alternate Universe - Mostly Canon**

this is for fics where everything is the same but ONE thing and that one thing changes everything, like Kate wasn't a hunter etc. Or the Hales survived the fire.

 

**Mpreg**

**Suicide/attempted suicide  
**

**Dubious Consent  
**

Again tag on the side of caution, if in doubt tag it just in case **  
**

**Dubious Consent side tags = Sex Pollen/Fuck or Die/coercion/drunk sex/aliens made them do it -**

_be specific somethings offend people whilst others don’t, and there’ s a huge step away from Peter forcing Isaac to having sex with him to save Scott, to the two of them being in Heat.  
_

****

_**Non-consensual turning** \- This includes Peter biting Scott, Stiles being forced to take the bite. Lydia being turned into a vampire. Any kind of transformation that the character DID NOT choose. You can explore this, go for it, you can explore the level of knowledge necessary for true consent - but warn for it.  
_

**We’ve had a suggestion of age gap** \- which is valid - _discussion suggested more than ten years. Also until the show bible actually answers these questions - Derek is 6 years older than Scott/Stiles/Lydia et al, and 5 years older than Allison. But use common sense, Chris might be ten years older than Peter, but Peter is twenty years older than Stiles, the Stiles one might cause controversy but the Chris/Peter one probably won't. If it's a big deal in the fic - warn for it, I personally don't mind the Derek/Stiles age gap but a lot of people do, so warn for it just in case.  
_

**Alternate universe**  
 _Ao3 has sub tags for this, ie Alternate Universe: Sentinels and Guides, I think we should double tag here, so it’s easier to rule out things we don’t want. Ie tag as Alternate Universe, and Alternate Universe : Fantasy  
_

**Famous popular tropes need to be tagged, such as** _  
_

_packmom!stiles, girl!character, failwolf!Derek, Alpha!Scott, alive!Hale family, alive!Laura, Alive!Claudia  
_

__

**Darkfic _:_**

_that does not necessarily include suicide, character death or non-con_ _  
_

**Genre** :

_Fantasy, horror, romance, sci fi - if the focus of your story is romance label it, it’s if it’s fantasy say so. Teen Wolf is technically Magical Realism so if you’re writing a simple non paired plot fic that’s there for you._

 

 **Songfic** \- any fic inspired by a song, these usually include the lyrics in the fic - and they’re a great way to write quickly

 

 **Top/Bottom** \- I don’t agree with this one but I can see that some people don’t like it. Personally I go with whatever works, but if your pref is for Bottom!Derek I can see that you’d want to weed out the rest of them.

 

 **ALWAYS ALWAYS RATE YOUR FIC!** Also if in doubt RATE UP! if you can't decide if your fic is a T or an M, go with M, no one is going to complain if you over estimate  but will if you underestimate. Some people are reading in work and so that heavily kinked out fic you rated T (And I've seen them) is inappropriate although they thought it was safe. Ask yourself is your story work safe, if not go with M, if it features explicit sexual content go with E, it's better to be safe than fired.

  
Rather than tagging for ever single sex act in a PWP just put explicit sexual content, we can kind of gather it from the rating, but uness there are kinks (femme!play, cross dressing, knotting) don't tag for it, you don't need to, and it means it's a pleasant surprise when we find it in fic.

 

 **Pairings** \- _unless your pairing is the main focus of the fic can we put other pairings in the tag thing, or perhaps more specifically, unless you have a scene where they are together just put it in the tags as opposed to the other tags, like so minor - etc, or established side-x/x etc._

_This needs some specification - main pairing goes in the pairing tag  
_

_use the ship name of the minor pairings (if you know it, in the tags option) that should help prevent confusion. I'll see what I can do to come to a consensus on ship names in the next few days.  
_

**Genderswap** \- Be specific. _  
_

_if you've switched everyone it's Rule 63, or just say Switched everyone!, if it's a gender swapped by magic - say so, if it's a Trans character say so, if it's always a girl character - say so. The point is to let people know what to tag for, and this is one where you cannot over tag. You can put Girl!Stiles, or genderswap!stiles, etc, but clearly label for Genderswap AS WELL.  
_

_**Adultery/Abandonment**  
_

**Kink**

_If you are writing sex and it doesn't feature a kink just put sexual situations (it covers so many things and leaves an element of surprise) however if your fic contains something vaguely kinky warn for kink, but BE SPECIFIC, ie if your fic contains Breathplay (this might be a simple as someone being told to hold their breath for as long as they could) water sports, knotting, slave play, BDSM, etc tag for it._

_You can put Kink - whatever the kink is. And remember just because you are a worldly wise author doesn't mean you don't have to treat your reader like Ichabod from Sleepy Hollow, sheltered and unaware, what might be normal for you could be kinky to them._

_**IS YOUR WORK FINISHED? NO, THEN DON'T JUST TAG WIP (easy to miss) USE THE BUTTON Ao3 GAVE**  
_

_on the submission form for a new work (and every chapter) is a button that says THIS WORK HAS MULTIPLE CHAPTERS, It's in the Associations box  
_

_it's just below - THIS WORK IS PART OF A SERIES  
_

_you don't need to tag for it - just click the box  
_

_this is really irritating to a lot of writers (myself included) because we might take a chance on a short one shot and find we're in part one of the new Game of Thrones, something we would have read when it was finished but didn't want to read dribbled out chapter by chapter. This doesn't mean don't write something the size of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time (14 great big phone directories) just please TICK THE BOX!  
_

Now as I said this is meant to be helpful, it's meant to give a resource to help you tag your fics, to know what to tag, but it can only be voluntary

The idea is to help curb the craziness that happens off screen where people read a trope and think it's representative of the whole fandom and then complain that no one understands the character - because it has, and is, happening. If we can narrow down what they're getting squicked by (because all squicks are valid) we can help tame the crazy that is happening.

But if you want to warn for crazy microwaves hell bent of world domination, go for it, no one is going to say anything, but if you don't tag for non-con a lot of people could get upset. It's trying to find a happy balance.

 

If you think of ANYTHING you want to see added tell me, I can add it to the list. I'd rather have a hundred useless tags (and those microwaves are determined) than miss a single one that will cause conflict.

 


End file.
